All My Sons: Act 1

The back yard of the KELLER home in the outskirts of an American town.

The stage is hedged on R. and L. by tall, closely planted poplars which lend the yard a secluded atmosphere.

The stage is hedged on R. and L. by tall, closely planted poplars which lend the yard a secluded atmosphere.

Upstage is filled with the back of the house and its open, unroofed porch which extends into the yard some six feet.

Now it is nicely painted, looks tight and comfortable, and the yard is green with sod, here and there plants whose season is gone.

Downstage R. is a small, trellised arbor, shaped like a sea-shell, with a decorative bulb hanging from its forward-curving roof.

Downstage R. is a small, trellised arbor, shaped like a sea-shell, with a decorative bulb hanging from its forward-curving roof.

KELLER is nearing sixty. A heavy man of stolid mind and build, a business man these many years, but with the imprint of the machine-shop worker and boss still upon him.

When he reads, when he speaks, when he listens, it is with the terrible concentration of the uneducated man for whom there is still wonder in many commonly known things, a man whose judgments must be dredged out of experience and a peasant-like common sense.

DOCTOR BAYLISS is nearing forty. A wry self-controlled man, an easy talker, but with a wisp of sadness that clings even to his self-effacing humor.

DOCTOR BAYLISS is nearing forty. A wry self-controlled man, an easy talker, but with a wisp of sadness that clings even to his self-effacing humor.

DOCTOR BAYLISS is nearing forty. A wry self-controlled man, an easy talker, but with a wisp of sadness that clings even to his self-effacing humor.

FRANK is thirty-two but balding. A pleasant, opinionated man, uncertain of himself, with a tendency toward peevishness when crossed, but always wanting it pleasant and neighborly.

He rather saunters in, leisurely, nothing to do.

FRANK: What’s the difference, it’s all bad news. What’s today’s calamity?

JIM [to KELLER]: Such is the condition which prevails [going to his wife], my love, my light....

Enter LYDIA LUBEY from R. She is a robust, laughing girl of twenty-seven.

KELLER: She’ll be down soon. Wait’ll you meet her, Sue, she’s a knockout.

CHRIS [coming down to settee]: I like to keep abreast of my ignorance.

CHRIS [coming down to settee]: I like to keep abreast of my ignorance.

BERT [pulls him down by the lapel and whispers in his ear]: Can I see the jail now?

KELLER [slight pause]: What was she doing out here at that hour? [CHRIS silent. An undertone of anger showing.] She’s dreaming about him again. She’s walking around at night.

CHRIS: Yes. I like it an hour a day. If I have to grub for money all day long at least at evening I want it beautiful.

MOTHER appears on porch. She is in her early fifties, a woman of uncontrolled inspirations, and an overwhelming capacity for love.

MOTHER: Minnie scoured that pail in boiling water last night.

MOTHER [with an undercurrent of observation]: Why then isn’t she?

KELLER [exasperated]: What do you want me to do?

ANN [resolutely]: No, Kate.

ANN [as they laugh]: You still haberdashering?

FRANK [sympathetically]: How about it, does Dad expect a parole soon?

FRANK [staunchly defending her father for her sake]: I mean because I feel, y’know, that if an intelligent man like your father is put in prison, there ought to be a law that says either you execute him, or let him go after a year.

KELLER: Actually what happened was that when I got home from the penitentiary the kids got very interested in me.

MOTHER: Don’t, Joe, she’s a sensitive girl, don’t fool her. [To ANN] They still remember about Dad. It’s different with him—[Indicates JOE]—he was exonerated, your father’s still there.

KELLER [clasps her around waist, smiling]: That’s my sentiments.

CHRIS: It takes a little time to toss that off....I went to work with Dad, and that rat-race again.

ANN [affectionately]: He’s so subtle!

With misgivings, ANN goes up and into house.

CHRIS [hurt and apprehensive]: What kind of a question...?

KELLER [a little more combatively]: I’m just talkin’.

KELLER [with overriding affection and self-confidence now. He grips CHRIS by the back of the neck, and with laughter between his determined jaws]: Look, Chris, I’ll go to work on Mother for you.